


The Life of Lebam

by RockSunner



Series: Lebam AU [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Leboyz, Mabel clone, Mabel doppelganger, Mabel twin, Multi, Sev'ral Timez clones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 14:58:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1714742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockSunner/pseuds/RockSunner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the origin story of Mabel's mirror clone, Lebam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Origin

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for the idea of Lebam goes to The Sqoou, who published theories about her on You Tube.

“Mabel Pines, you have made me the happiest boy in the world,” said Gideon.

He hugged her and pushed in close, using his right hand to clip a bit of her hair, and fibers from her llama-haired sweater. He let them fall into a small vial.

Mabel could feel something odd was going on, but she wasn't sure what. “Are you sniffing my hair?”

***

Gideon returned to the room full of clothing where he had given Mabel a makeover. He got out his Book 2 and reviewed the page for “Mirror Doppelgangers.”

Standing to the side of the full-length mirror that had recently reflected Mabel's image, he got out the fibers. He pressed them to the mirror and chanted, “Speculum gemini, speculum gemini.”

The fibers stuck the mirror, where they grew and expanded into a complete mirror image of Mabel in her llama sweater. The image stumbled out of the mirror and into the room.

“Gideon? What's going on? Last thing I remember, we were sitting on top of your warehouse. Now we're back in your makeover room. I don't have time for any more makeovers today...”

“You're not who you think you are,” said Gideon. “You're the mirror doppelganger of my darlin' Mabel. I think I'll call you Lebam, which is Mabel spelled backwards.”

“You're such a kidder,” said Lebam.

She moved in to give him a hard playful punch on the shoulder, but he touched the gem on his bolo tie with his right hand. The gem glowed green and her left hand was caught in a field of magic.

“Don't touch me without permission,” said Gideon.

“What are you doing?” said Lebam.

“Magic. With this amulet I can make things move,” said Gideon. He released her hand from his telekinetic grip.

“That's so awesome,” said Lebam. “May I try it?”

“No. I don't want you turnin' its power against me,” said Gideon. “Besides, it's breakable. If it hit something hard it would shatter, and I can never make another one.”

“All right, just asking,” said Lebam. “I need to go home now.”

“You can't. I have something for you to do,” said Gideon.

“Like what?” said Lebam.

“We're going downtown, and we'll take some photographs and do an interview for my self-published fan magazine,” said Gideon.

“Why?” asked Lebam.

“If I build up people's expectations of romance between Mabel and myself, she'll find it much harder to say no to another date, and another, and another, and eventually my proposal of marriage,” said Gideon.

“Marriage? You can't get me to marry you. I don't like you that much. I'm starting not to like you at all,” said Lebam.

“The real Mabel is falling for me, I know it. You're her mirror opposite, so naturally you hate what she loves,” said Gideon.

“Don't be silly. I'm the real me,” said Lebam.

“Look at yourself in the mirror,” said Gideon.

Lebam looked, and said, “I don't see anything different. What am I supposed to see?”

“Look at your sweater, and look in the mirror again,” said Gideon.

Lebam looked. The mirror-reflected llama faced left, and so did the one on her sweater. “That's weird, these clothes don't reverse in the mirror.”

“My book said that's how it would work. Since you're already a mirror reflection, the mirror doesn't reverse you. At least you have a reflection. That's good, or you might not show up in photographs,” said Gideon.

Lebam looked behind the mirror, expecting a projector or some other trick. She saw nothing unusual.

“This is... this is real, isn't it? I'm not me. That means I've got nobody – no home, no friends, no Grunkle Stan, no Dipper...” said Lebam.

“Nobody but li'l ol' me,” said Gideon in a sinister whisper.

“What have you done?” asked Lebam, getting angry. “You have to send me back to the mirror world where I belong.”

“Do the magazine interview for me, and we'll see,” said Gideon.

“Do it now,” said Lebam. Like one of nature's greatest warriors, she lowered her head and charged him.

“Stop!” said Gideon.

Lebam froze in her tracks. It wasn't like the green glow that held her before. This time, her muscles simply wouldn't obey her, no matter how much she struggled to move.

“I forgot to mention that the amulet gives me a li'l bit of mind-control, too,” said Gideon. “Since I summoned you, I can control your actions completely.”

Lebam stopped fighting, hoping that she could get away later.

“All right, I'll do the interview, but I won't lie for you,” said Lebam.

“Just smile and let me do all the talking. And here, wear this sweater,” said Gideon.

Gideon pulled a plain light-blue sweater in her size off one of the hangers and tossed it to her.

“Plain? I don't do plain,” said Lebam.

“You can't be seen in the llama-hair one since it's backwards from hers and people might remember. And besides, this one won't clash with my suit,” said Gideon.

Lebam put the sweater on and went downtown with Gideon. She got her picture taken with him for the Gravity Falls Gossiper by Toby Determined, and she did the interview, smiling and nodding and hating it. Gideon ordered a mass printing of his new fan magazine, 'Gideon & Mabel', to be distributed all over town for free.

***

Afterward, Gideon took Lebam to his warehouse at 412 Gopher Road.

“Now you'll let me go... you promised,” said Lebam.

“I don't know how to send you back. Anyway, it might be useful to have you around,” said Gideon.

“What? Why?” asked Lebam.

“While Mabel is not yet mine, if I don't want to wait... you'll do as a backup,” said Gideon.

“You'd cheat on her? You're despicable,” said Lebam.

“It's not cheating, it's practice. You're a copy of her, my copy. But for now, I've decided I want to save myself for the real Mabel,” said Gideon.

“Good,” said Lebam. “That works for me.”

“So I'll keep you here, locked up in my warehouse,” said Gideon.

“No!” said Lebam.

“I can't have you running off to tell Mabel. It would spoil our big date tonight,” said Gideon.

“She'll see through you soon enough,” said Lebam.

“I'm going now. My Li'l Gideon dolls will keep an eye on you,” said Gideon.

“You have dolls here? May I at least play with them?” asked Lebam.

“Don't touch the merchandise. The dolls are magic – they can talk, and they'll tell me if you mess with them,” said Gideon.

He left to prepare for his date. Once he was gone, Lebam tried the door. As expected, she was locked in. She opened the top of one of the doll crates.

“Li'l Gideon dolls? If I play with you, you won't tell on me, right? I'm a fun person... a copy of one, anyway,” said Lebam.

The dolls shook their small, big-haired heads. “No playing.”

“We've got something in common. It sucks to be a copy of someone, don't you think? Not to mention being treated like a slave. We could get to be friends and take our minds off our troubles,” said Lebam.

One of the dolls pulled the string of another, and a creepy laugh came out.

“Okay, I get it: you're as evil as he is,” said Lebam. “Fine, I don't want to play with you anyway. I'll be in Sweatertown.”

She put the lid back on the crate, then sat in the corner and pulled the plain sweater over her head.

She thought of Gideon sweet-talking her other self into another date. She whispered, “Please don't let him fool you, Mabel.”

As she said the name, she felt a connection. Something felt different about the sweater she wore under the plain sweater. She felt the front of it and realized it was her purple one with the pink cat face. The sense of being in touch with Mabel was comforting. She allowed herself to doze off.

***

Gideon came back from the date radiantly happy. As he had hoped, the newspaper and fan magazines had built up the interest of the whole town. When he asked Mabel for another date, everyone had gathered around her and pressured her into saying yes.

While he was gone on the second date, Lebam tried saying “Mabel” again. This time she got a pink sweater with a red and purple butterfly. It came with a pink hairpin, which Lebam took out of her hair and put in her pocket so that Gideon wouldn't find out about her clothes-reflecting power.

It was terribly boring in the warehouse. Gideon was so caught up with Mabel that he seldom remembered to bring Lebam food. She survived on Li'l Gideon brand bottled water and paper packing material. Apparently being partly created from llama-hair gave her a llama's digestion.

Gideon was radiant again after his second date. But he came back the day after the third date furious.

“Dipper Pines has come between Mabel and me,” he snarled. “He'll regret that to his dying day – which just happens to be today.”

“No! Don't hurt Dipper,” Lebam said.

Gideon ignored her words. “Maybe I'll have you show yourself just before I finish him. The last thing he sees will be his sister watching him die and doing nothing to help.”

“It's not going to happen,” said Lebam.

“We'll see about that,” said Gideon.

He placed a call to Toby Determined, promising him the phone number of Shandra Jimenez if he would call Dipper and lure him to the warehouse at 7:00 that night.

“No, I won't give you her number over the phone,” Gideon said. “I don't trust you. I want to hear you make the call in person.”

After he hung up, Gideon told Lebam, “Dipper dies tonight. And then I'll be taking advantage of that backup plan we discussed. I find that violence excites me.”

“You...!” Lebam began, clenching her fists, but Gideon cut her off.

“Be silent and stay back.” Then he was out through the warehouse doors and she heard them lock behind him.

Lebam waited a few minutes for him to leave, and then she pulled out the pink hair pin she had kept and began working on the lock. She had to get away, had to warn Dipper. It was tough to pick and the pin kept slipping. It seemed like hours before the lock finally gave way.

Lebam took off the rather dusty blank sweater and said “Mabel” to get a new light-blue sweater with an umbrella on it. She threw the old sweater onto the top of a crate. If she met Gideon on his way back, she had half a chance of making him think she was Mabel.

She began running toward the Mystery Shack. There was a chance she could intercept Dipper, if he didn't take a side trip into the woods to collect interesting items to show Toby Determined. But of course he would; Dipper was anything if not thorough.

She finally got to the Shack. No sign of Dipper; he must have already left by now. She heard Mabel talking with Wendy on the front porch about breaking up with boyfriends, but there was no time left to rush in and explain everything. She collected Mabel's bike and helmet from near the back porch, where Mabel usually left them.

“I know what I've gotta do. Thanks for talking to me, Wendy,” said Mabel.

Lebam moved into the shadows at the side of the building as Mabel walked by.

Mabel was muttering to herself, “It's too late to go to Gideon's house tonight. I'll break up with him in person tomorrow.”

As soon as Mabel was out of sight, Lebam pedaled out past Wendy, who wasn't paying enough attention to notice anything odd about “Mabel's” rapid return.

Lebam rode up the hill toward the warehouse, worrying about what she was about to try. She had to pull this impersonation off successfully, or Dipper would die and she would wind up back in Gideon's power. She hesitated, but she couldn't live with herself if she just rode away and left Dipper to his fate... she had to do it.

Arriving at the warehouse, Lebam peeked in the window. There was Dipper, the brother she remembered so well and had never met, suspended in the air by Gideon's telekinesis and being threatened with a large pair of lamb shears.

“Gideon, we have to talk,” Lebam said, pushing open the warehouse doors.

“M-Mabel. My marshmallow, What are you doing here?” said Gideon. The shears dropped to the ground.

“I'm sorry Gideon, but I can't be your marshmallow. I needed to be honest and tell you that myself.”

“I-I don't understand,” said Gideon.

Dipper was choking in midair. “Uh, Mabel!? This probably isn't the best time to be brutally honest with him.”

Lebam knew she had to throw Gideon a lifeline to get close enough to do what she needed to do.

“Hey, we can still be makeover buddies, right? Wouldn't you like that?”

Gideon's eyes grew wide. “Really?”

She was close enough now. Leban grabbed the amulet with her dominant left hand and tore it from around Gideon's neck.

“No, not really! You were like, attacking my brother, what the heck?” said Lebam.

Lebam tossed the amulet to Dipper, who taunted Gideon that he had no power without it. Gideon tackled him, and both of them smashed out the window and fell toward the ground far below.

The amulet landed at Lebam's feet. She had only seen Gideon activate it with his right hand, so that was the hand she used to pick it up. She focused her will, and found she could control the amulet easily. She swooped out of the window and caught the two falling boys just before they hit the ground.

Lebam floated down to the ground, holding the amulet above her head.

“Listen Gideon, it's over. I will never, ever, date you.”

She threw the amulet hard against a rock, and it shattered in a puff of green smoke.

Gideon said, backing slowly into the woods, “My powers! Oh this isn't over. This isn't the last you'll see of l'il ol' me!”

Dipper said, “Thanks for the save, Mabel.”

“No problem,” said Lebam. “You don't look in very good shape. My bike is up there, so I'll get it and ride you home. And can I borrow your cell phone? Mine's out of juice.”

“Sure,” said Dipper, handing over the phone.

As Lebam walked back up the hill to get the bike, she texted to Mabel, “Stay away from Gideon. I saved ur bro's life from him 2nite. U can get the credit.”

Mabel texted back, “Is this a joke Dip?”

Lebam texted, “I'm Lebam ur mirror double. Come out when I put ur bike away and take my place.”

Once Dipper was safely home and everyone was asleep, Mabel came out to talk to Lebam, who was hiding in the woods.

“This is so cool,” Mabel said. “You're like the identical sister I never had but I sometimes wished Dipper had been. Thank you for saving him.”

“You're welcome,” said Lebam.

Mabel gave Lebam a big hug.

“What will you do now?” Mabel asked. “Go back to the mirror world?”

“I don't know how to go back,” Lebam said. “I guess I'll have to go away somewhere and try to start a new life.”

“Stay here with us,” said Mabel. “You can share my life. We'll swap places and fool everyone. It'll be super duper fun.”

“I love super duper fun. But only if you can keep me a secret,” said Lebam. “If not, Gideon will try to get me again, or your Grunkle Stan will want to use me for a sideshow.”

"You got it, twin sister," said Mabel.


	2. Life With the Pines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lebam moves into the Mystery Shack in secret.

Lebam said, "I'd like to have a place to sleep inside. There's a wolf that prowls the yard at night."

"You saw it?" asked Mabel.

"I smell it," said Lebam. "Can't you? It marked its territory on the totem pole."

"I can't smell anything," said Mabel. "Your sense of smell must be keener than mine."

"It probably comes of being part llama," said Lebam.

You're part llama? Cool! I wish I could be part llama, too," said Mabel.

"It has its points," said Lebam. "Anyway, what about that storage closet in the attic, right near the top of the stairs? I could sleep in there."

"I'll share some of my blankets with you," said Mabel.

"Don't worry about it. My copy of your memories tells me there are a bunch of coats on hangers in there. I can take some down and sleep on them," said Lebam.

"Tomorrow we can start trading places," said Mabel.

"I'll need a little time to practice before I trust myself with fooling Dipper," said Lebam.

"What's to practice? You're just like me," said Mabel.

"Not quite. Are you right handed?" asked Lebam.

"Yes, I'm right-handed," said Mabel. "I throw really well with my right, but when I throw with my left I usually miss."

"I'm left-handed," said Lebam. "I tossed Gideon's bolo tie to Dipper with my left hand tonight, but I think he was too much in shock to notice."

***

Lebam lay low and slept most of the next day, recovering from her ordeal as Gideon's prisoner.

Mabel came to visit her that night after the others were asleep. She looked exhausted.

"What's that sweet stuff I smell on you?" Lebam asked.

"Smile Dip," said Mabel. "We raided an abandoned convenience store with Wendy and her friends."

"Do you have more? I want some," said Lebam.

"No. It's evil stuff," said Mabel. "I pigged out on it so much that never want to eat it again."

"No fair! I want to pig out too," said Lebam.

"It's banned, past its expiration date, and it will give you hallucinations," said Mabel.

"Now I really want it," said Lebam. "Where's the convenience store? I want to go raid it now on your bike."

"If you must," said Mabel. "Watch out for the ghosts."

"You met ghosts, too?" asked Lebam. "I'm definitely doing this."

"Just tell them you're not a teenager and you should be all right."

Lebam biked out to the Dusk 2 Dawn store. The owner ghosts were friendly.

"May I please have a big box of Smile Dip to take home?" she asked them.

"I'd rather not give out our merchandise for free," said Ma Duskerton.

"We really enjoyed that Lamby Lamby dance your brother did for us," said Pa Duskerton. "Can you do it too?"

"Dancing is Dipper's thing, but I can sing. I'll sing the second verse. Dipper and I used to giggle over that part when we were younger, but now he usually skips it," said Lebam.

"When you're grazing on the grassy-grassy,  
Yum-yum! Yum-yum!  
Be sure that you don't get too gassy-gassy,  
Burp-burp! Burp-burp!"

"Delightful," said Ma.

"You've earned your Smile Dip," said Pa.

Lebam went to the display. "Oh, it's almost all gone."

"No problem, with our ghostly convenience-store powers," said Pa.

He gestured and a small stack of full Smile Dip boxes appeared in front of Lebam.

"Thank you!" Lebam said.

She loaded the boxes onto her bike basket, holding them steady with her chin as she rode back to the house.

"I'm gonna get so sick," she thought.

***

Lebam slept late after a rough night with the Smile Dip. Mabel woke her after they had gone out to eat.

"Dipper has gone off into the woods today," Mabel said. "He texted me that he's working on his manliness, so that will take a really long time. This is a good chance to practice being me for a day."

"Are there any plans?" Lebam asked.

"I have a project for you," Mabel said. "You can work on getting Grunkle Stan ready to ask Lazy Susan out. He needs a lot of work on his relationship skills."

"I love it," said Lebam. "Those two would be perfect for each other. Grunkle Stan needs a lot of work, though."

"I'll tag team with you if it gets too rough," said Mabel.

"Thanks, Mabel, but I'm sure I can handle it," said Lebam, and she was instantly wearing a copy of the green sweater with mushrooms that Mabel had on.

Lebam went downstairs with Mabel's instant camera and scrapbook. After enlisting Soos to help, she went to find Stan.

Stan was shuffling a deck of cards in preparation for a game of solitaire.

"Okay, Grunkle Stan. Welcome to the first day of whatever is left of your life! First, a before picture," said Lebam.

She set off the camera flash and suprised Stan so much that the picture showed his ghastly startled face and cards flying everywhere. She put the picture on a blank page of the scrapbook.

"Let's start out with some roleplaying. Soos will play Lazy Suzan," said Lebam.

"I'm soft, like a woman," said Soos, who had put on a Lazy Susan outfit.

"Grunckle Stan, show me how you approach a woman. Remember this is a safe, non-judgemental environment. I'll just be right off the side judging you on a scale from one to ten," said Lebam.

She was holding up a pen and a notepad. She realized she had the pen in her left hand and her notebook in the right, so she quickly set the writing materials down.

"Can I borrow some money?" Stan asked Soos.

Lebam blew a whistle. "This is gonna be harder than I thought."

She came up a little while later and found Mabel in her room.

"Tag. I'm going to need help," she said.

"Don't worry, I've got a Training Mix disc that's a sure thing. Nothing makes a training montage go faster than music," said Mabel.

Mabel went downstairs while Lebam rested in her bed.

A while later, Mabel came back up.

"Tag. I'm getting nowhere. I tried to shave off his chest hair, but it grew back too fast," said Mabel.

"I'm not giving up," said Lebam.

Soon she decided that Lazy Susan might like Stan as a fixer-upper, so she took him to the diner. Susan, surprisingly, gave Stan her phone number.

Lebam was ecstatic, and started babbling about calling Susan right away, about not having a phone, and about getting a phone. About then, Dipper showed up and she babbled some more about seeing him through the window.

***

Later she told Mabel how it had gone. "I realized later that you do have a cell phone, that black one with white keys. I don't have one myself, though. It might be good if I could get one. I'm glad Grunkle Stan was paying more attention to his cherry pie than to me."

"I'll see if I can find a prepaid disposable phone in town," said Mabel. "I'll try to find one that looks the same."

"I hope nobody else noticed," Lebam asked. "Has anyone seen your phone?"

"I don't use it much; the phone signal is bad out here. Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland have. They confiscated our stuff for a while when we were arrested for counterfeiting, and had a big laugh about our fancy computer phones," said Mabel.

"I remember your memory of that," said Lebam. "That happened before I was cloned from you."

"That's right," said Mabel. "Any other problems with the swaps today?"

"I may have been too silly when I saw Dipper. I said such obvious stuff about seeing him through the window. I was just so excited about finding someone for Grunkle Stan," said Lebam.

"Don't worry about it. It's hard to play me too silly," said Mabel.

"At least I remembered to use my right hand when I pulled his one chest hair for the scrapbook," said Lebam. "It might have hurt him a little more that way, but I didn't give myself away."

"You did well, sister," said Mabel. "We'll try again soon."

***

The day after, there was to be a dance at the Mystery Shack. Lebam decided to go into the woods to stay out of the way, since having so many people around increased the chance that she would be discovered.

Her keen sense of hearing picked up two people talking, both with voices like Dipper's.

"Well, now that we've taken Robbie's bike, what shall we do now?" said one. "Go back?"

"Not much point," said the other. "We'd just get in the classic Dipper's way. We have a better chance of lasting longer out here, as long as it doesn't rain."

Lebam came out from behind a tree. "Hi, guys!"

"Mabel! What a surprise," said the Dipper with a "3" on his hat.

"As you can see, Dipper decided to use the copy machine we found," said the one with a "4" on his hat. "We took Robbie's bike to get him out of the way so that Dipper can use his master plan to talk to Wendy and get her to dance with him."

"You don't have to worry about me telling," said Lebam. "I'm a copy, too."

"Really? Mabel used the copy machine, too?" asked "3."

"No, I'm a magic mirror doppelganger. You can call me Lebam."

"You can call me Fred," said "3". "He can be Rick."

(Lebam knew that Dipper's real name was Frederic. The twins had been named for a couple in "The Pirates of Penzance" because they had been born on February 29th, 2000. It was a plot point in the play that the character Frederic had this as his birthday.)

"Hey, why do you get the first part of Dipper's real name?" asked Rick.

"I'm lower numbered, so I get priority," said Fred.

"Nice to meet you, Fred and Rick. It's good to talk to a couple of guys I can be myself with instead of having to pretend to be Mabel," said Lebam.

"Want to hang out with us for a while?" asked Rick.

"Sure, I'd love the company," said Lebam.

"Just as buddies," said Fred.

"Even though we're not related... just copies of a brother and sister," said Rick with a trace of regret.

"Of course," said Lebam. "No mushy stuff."

Both the boys winced.

"Did I say something wrong?" asked Lebam.

"You reminded us of what happens when we touch anything wet," said Fred. "We turn into mushy stuff."

"Definitely platonic, then," said Lebam, with a slight trace of regret herself.

She camped out with Fred and Rick for a couple of days. She lost them in a sudden downpour when they couldn't get to shelter in time.

***

When Lebam got back to the woods near the Mystery Shack, Mabel told her she had missed the Pioneer Day Celebration, and that she and Dipper had uncovered a national secret.

"We nearly got shipped off to Washington DC in a crate, and locked up for the rest of our lives, to preserve the secret," Mabel told her.

"Sorry I wasn't there to help," said Lebam. "I met a couple of cute guys in the woods, though."

"Dipper's clones? He told me two of them never came back," said Mabel.

"Well, they were cute, in a way, but that's not who I meant," said Lebam.

She waved to the woods and two pale-skinned young men came out. They were very handsome, with long black hair.

"Meet Vlad and Bela," said Lebam.

"How do you do?" said Vlad and Bela, with foreign accents.

"Bella? Isn't that a girl's name?" asked Mabel.

"Bela is a man's name in Eastern Europe," said Bela. "In Transylvania, for example."

"Transylvania? Are you vampires?" Mabel asked.

"Yes," said Vlad, showing fang tips.

"Squee! Lebam, you did good!"

"I know! They want to double-date us," said Lebam.

They went on a secret date that night, which went well until the vampires got carried away.

"We could turn you into vampires, too," said Vlad. "You could be with us forever."

"Forever? I'm not ready for that level of commitment, guys," said Mabel.

"Me neither," said Lebam.

"Farewell then," said Bela. The vampires turned into giant bats and flew away.

"Hey, we never even got a kiss," complained Lebam.

"Guys," said Mabel. "It's all or nothing with them."

"Like the gnomes," said Lebam.

"And Gideon," said Mabel.

"Don't get me started on him," said Lebam, with a grim look.

"When are we going to find a nice guy apiece for a summer romance?" asked Mabel.

"I don't know, but let's not tell Dipper about the vampires," said Lebam.

***

Lebam stayed hidden during the carnival Grunkle Stan put on at the Mystery Shack. She asked Mabel to buy an extra cotton candy and bring it to her, but Mabel saw a pig she could win at a weight-guessing contest, and she got so excited she threw the treats on the ground. Lebam wasn't mad about it because she loved Waddles on sight, just as Mabel did.

She was disappointed about missing out on a time-travel adventure, though. Mabel offered to let her take the whole next day, and to do whatever adventure or Grunkle Stan fix-up project she liked.

***

The next day was quiet and pleasant, with a trip to the Arcade, then home for a card game which Lebam won with beginner's luck, then some TV watching in the afternoon while Dipper got in trouble with Robbie for breaking his phone, and he went somewhere to hide.

Lebam finally found a fix-up project when Grunkle Stan showed he had a fear of heights by refusing to use a ladder. She tried various tricks to get him to admit his fear, but nothing worked until he saw a skydiving program on television, and screamed.

"So I have a fear of heights. Is that really so cray-cray?" asked Stan.

Lebam finally had a cell phone, one she bought for herself while downtown during the arcade trip. She texted Mabel, who was hiding in her room, and asked for help with a plan. Mabel thought about it while talking to Dipper, who had brought Rumble McSkirmish, the video game fighter, up to their room. Rumble was going to act as his bodyguard in the fight with Robbie, Dipper said.

"Use the scout's honor/double cross 2 trick him," Mabel sent after Dipper left.

"I'll do fast-change type 4," Lebam sent back. They had practiced clothing reflecting tricks and Lebam was now an expert.

She sneaked behind Stan's chair and shouted, "Hey, Grunkle Stan!"

This made him do a spit-take with a mouthful of soda.

"How would you like to take a walk nowhere in particular while wearing a blindfold?" Lebam asked.

"Eh! It beats just sitting around being old," said Stan. "Wait a minute. You're not planning on taking me somewhere super high up, are you?"

"Grunkle Stan! I would never! Scout's honor," said Lebam.

She focused on the new outfit she knew Mabel was wearing, without saying her name aloud, and she was able to instantly pull on a duplicate sweater from thin air, and change her headband and skirt color at the same time. The sweater showed a scout finger pledge.

"All right, let's go," said Stan, heading for the door.

Lebam chuckled. She flipped her long hair over the back of the sweater, which showed crossed fingers, the sign of a double-cross. She blindfolded Stan and led him to the top of the Gravity Falls water tower.

"Take off your blindfold now!" said Lebam.

Grunkle Stan took it off and stared at the ground far below. "Yeah, that was pretty much what I was expecting."

"You're doing better than I thought," said Lebam. "Now let go of the hand-rail."

"No!" said Stan.

"Hey, do you smell anger, and hormones?" Lebam asked. Her llama senses were kicking in again.

Robbie came up the ladder, panting hard.

"Hey Robbie! Get your own water tower," said Lebam.

"Keep it down, he'll find us!" said Robbie.

Rumble McSkirmish was below, looking for a way to bring his opponent to the ground. "You can hide, but you cannot hide!"

Rumble began punching the leg of the tower, making it sway.

"We're safe, right?" Lebam asked. Her natural llama height fearlessness was beginning to crumble.

"Of course not!" said Stan. "This thing is on stilts, high, high up!"

The tower continued to sway, Robbie fell off, and Stan and Lebam ran around like chickens.

The attacking video game figure left and the tower finally steadied. Lebam stood petrified beside Stan.

"I'm sorry, Grunkle Stan. I thought this would help, but I was wrong," Lebam said. "So wrong!"

"I survived," said Stan. "I survived and I feel great! Wait, let me do a cocky dance, just to be sure."

He waggled his hips and made funny musical sounds.

"Ha! Deal with it, world. Stan Pines has cured his fear of heights!"

He went to the ladder. "Coming, kid?"

"Uh-uh," said Lebam, standing frozen.

"What's the matter? You got a fear of heights now?"

Lebam didn't answer, but turned her face away from the ladder.

"Oh-oh," said Stan.

He had to carry her down the ladder. She was stiff as a board from fear.


	3. Boss Lebam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lebam helps Mabel when she tries to run the Mystery Shack after a bet with Grunkle Stan.

The next few days Lebam stayed hidden in the closet. She didn't want to come out and face the stairs. Finally her natural sure-footedness on heights began to recover. By then Mabel and Dipper had gone through an adventure of being shrunk and captured by Gideon. Fortunately, Mabel was not affected by Lebam's acrophobia, or the flying escape from Gideon's house would have been much more difficult.

They had also faced and defeated the Summerween Trickster with the help of their friends and the enormous appetite of Soos.

***

The next opportunity for substitution came when Mabel gave Lebam the chance to run the register at the Mystery Shack while Dipper was occupied with being a "wolf boy" for the crowd.

"Behold! Mystery Shack bumper stickers! You can stick them on your bumper, or over your husband's mouth. Am I right, ladies? She knows what I'm talking about!" said Lebam.

"Oh! You are bad! How much?" asked a woman customer.

Tickled by the complement, Lebam said, "Hey, it's on the house. That's the Mabel difference!"

Grunkle Stan came out from behind a cardboard cutout of himself. Angry with her for giving away merchandise, he took her off cash-register duty.

"But, but..." stammered Lebam.

"No buts, except yours out the door," said Stan. "Now shut your yap and get to work."

"Grunkle Stan, whatever happened to 'please' and 'thank you'? Hmm? Oh wait. Here they are!"

Lebam stuck stickers with those words on Stan's face. He transferred "Please" to the cash-register and "Thank You" to Soos' back.

"'Please' never made me any money, kid. In fact, just saying the word gives me a burning sensation," said Stan.

Dipper came up to the counter and complained about his itchy wolf boy costume. "I think I'm getting hookworm."

"Yep. Gluing dog hair to your body will do that," said Stan.

Dipper and Mabel agreed that Stan should look for real attractions instead of fake ones, and that he should be nicer to the employees.

"Look, you guys have a problem the way I run the Shack, take it up with the complaint department," said Stan, offering a trash can.

Lebam knew he was being sarcastic, but she decided to play it straight to spoil the joke.

Grabbing a piece of paper, she said, "I'm going to write them such a letter."

Stan snorted and walked off.

Dipper said, "You know there isn't a real complaint department, right?"

Lebam said, "Of course I do. I wanted to spoil his sarcasm."

Dipper said, "The funny thing is, you're writing with your left hand."

Lebam realized she had done this out of habit. She instantly scribbled out her neat left-handed writing and turned it into a scrawl that said, "I'm pretending to write something."

She showed the note to Dipper. "See, pretending to write with my left hand was all part of the joke."

"I get it," Dipper said with a smile. "Pretty good, sis."

Soon Grunkle Stan demanded that all the employees get up on the roof and paint the sign with glitter to attract more tourists. Lebam excused herself for a moment and got Mabel. She was gradually getting over her acrophobia, but not enough to climb up on a rickety roof.

***

Later, Mabel came to visit Lebam in her closet.

"The workers got talking on the roof, and I found out that Grunkle Stan nixed a really good idea Soos had to be Questiony the Question Mark of the Mystery Shack. I went to complain to him," said Mabel.

"What happened?" Lebam asked.

"We ended up making a bet," said Mabel. "I have three days to run the Mystery Shack while Grunkle Stan goes on vacation. If he earns more money on his vacation than I do here, then I have to wear a shirt that says 'Loser' for the rest of the summer. If I win, he has to sing an apology song and do a dance, and I get to run the Shack for the rest of the summer."

"I'll help," said Lebam. "If you have to wear a 'Loser' shirt then so do I."

"This is going to be easy," said Mabel. "I've written an inspiring speech that will make everyone more productive. As for Grunkle Stan, how much money can he earn on vacation, anyway?"

They soon learned that Stan had got himself on as a contestant on Cash Wheel and he was raking in thousands of dollars in cash showers and cash floods.

Meanwhile, everything was going wrong at the Shack. The Soos Questiony suit was too revealing and scared customers away. Wendy got to have her friends in the Shack, but they just messed things up and customers got hurt. Dipper brought in a real Gremoblin, but its powers of making people see their worst nightmares had driven two customers insane.

By the third day, Mabel had collapsed in exhaustion and Lebam had taken over. She was overworking herself too, since Wendy and Soos had been given time off. Then she made another bad mistake: she gave the Gremoblin a key for a five-minute break, and soon it was out wrecking the store.

"What'll we do Dipper?" Lebam asked. "He's awarding himself stickers he didn't even earn."

Dipper got out his Book 3, "When fighting a gremoblin, use water..."

Lebam grabbed a glass of water and tossed it over the Gremoblin with her left hand.

Dipper continued, "Only as a last resort, since water will make him much, much scarier."

The Gremoblin grew larger, with spikes on its back and the added ability to breathe fire.

They hid again and waited for it to go away. Unfortunately, it became obsessed with making the talking fish say: "I'm da singin' salmon, spendin' all day jammin' ".

Then it tried to eat the jar of profits, and Lebam ran out yelling, "Stop! Stop!"

It grabbed her and caught her in its gaze and Lebam was in her worst nightmare, back in the clutches of Gideon Gleeful. Dipper saved her by showing the monster its own eyes in a mirror.

It moaned, "You've become your father" and ran away.

"Well, at least it didn't do that much damage," said Dipper, as the monster flew off, smashing the top of the totem pole onto a tourist's car.

"Dipper, we only have seven hours to earn back all our profits, or I'm going to have to wear that Loser shirt all summer," Lebam wailed.

Then Soos and Wendy showed up.

"Wendy, Soos, am I glad to see you," said Lebam. "We have a lot of work to do, but if we hurry we can still beat Stan."

"I've got a little headache," Wendy said. "Maybe I should, like, not work today."

"I just met this pack of wolves," Soos said. "I think they're gonna, like, raise me as one of their own. I really should be at the den right now."

"But, but..." said Lebam.

"But hey, see you on Monday," said Wendy, as Soos asked to eat two popsicles that had melted on the floor.

Lebam got angry, turning on the fighting spirit of a charging llama.

"ENOUGH!" she shouted. "I fought a monster to save this business, and this is how you repay me?"

She ranted, drawing on all the harsh words Stan had used to compel his lazy employees to work. Her pounding fist shook the hat-rack and Stan's fez fell onto her head.

She looked in the mirror, and saw the fez, with its symbol un-reversed, exactly as it appeared when she looked at Stan.

"Dipper, what have I become?" asked Lebam.

"What you had to, Mabel," said Dipper, looking at her a bit oddly. There was something strange about how she looked, but he couldn't quite place it. He put it out of his mind: there was work to be done.

Working nonstop for seven hours, they just managed to turn a dollar of profit after paying for all the damages.

Stan showed up with nothing, having bet all his winnings on a final answer he couldn't get: the word "Please."

Stan said Mabel had won and she could run the Shack for the rest of the summer, but everyone begged Stan to take his job back. He did, but he still had to do a "sorry dance" for Mabel and Waddles.

***

In the middle of the dance, between takes 29 and 30, Stan's hat fell off and Gompers the goat grabbed it. In a blink of an eye, the symbol on the fez blanked out and was replaced by a different shape, with a sharper angle and a dot in the "mouth" of the fish-like symbol.

Lurking within the goat, the demon Bill Cipher chuckled. Lebam's putting on the symbol and forcing it be un-reversed in the mirror had weakened the symbolic connection and allowed Bill to replace it with his own symbol. This new symbol, with an inverse profile of Bill embedded in it, would give him greater access to the mind of Stan Pines in the future.

Everywhere the symbol appeared in the shop, it changed. It changed on Stan's bobble-heads. It changed on the wax head of Stan that Mabel had put back together with its body. The change spread farther and altered even the drawing of Cipher's Wheel in Book 2, held by Gideon. The change then spread to the memories of all who had seen the fez before. Nobody remembered the change had even happened.

Except in the back of Mabel's mind, in her subconscious, the old symbol remained. Her purity of heart and her cloning into Lebam had weakened Bill's grip, but he vowed that would change. He had a place for both of them on his Wheel, and he was watching the Shooting Star and the Backwards Llama... very closely indeed.


	4. Deep Ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Covers the episodes "Bottomless Pit!" and "The Deep End"

"Lebam, Grunkle Stan asked us to collect up any old things we want to get rid of, to throw somewhere they'll never come back. Do you have anything?"

"I've got some empty boxes of Smile Dip that are taking up space in my closet," said Lebam. "And some other stuff that bothers me, like creepy jars of alien heads and a bag of loose deer teeth."

"Okay, you can put them in the large box we found. I'm going to put the Truth Teeth in there, but there's plenty of room for more stuff. Nobody has to see what else we're throwing out and connect it with your closet," Mabel said with a giggle.

They carried the junk to Mabel's bedroom. Dipper was already downstairs.

"I'm glad to get rid of the Truth Teeth," said Lebam. "Remember how Grunkle Stan kept yelling out all those things we didn't want to know?"

"Do you want to do this trash run, or shall I?" Mabel asked.

"It doesn't matter one way or the other to me. You can do it," said Lebam. "Hey, what's this bundle of papers in the corner by your bed?"

"Creepy love letters from Gideon," said Mabel.

"What? You've been keeping his love letters?" said Lebam.

"They're funny, in a weird sort of way," said Mabel.

"Nothing about Li'l Gideon is funny. You don't realize what he wanted to do to me, what he would have done if I hadn't gotten free," said Lebam.

"You really hate him, don't you?" said Mabel. "I have mixed feelings, because there were times when he was nice. If we could have stayed just friends, and makeover buddies..."

"Hate doesn't begin to cover how I feel," said Lebam. "He's responsible for the mess I'm in, having to share a life."

"Don't you like it here?" asked Mabel.

"Sure, it's fun, most of the time. But it's not a whole life. I'm always having to hide," said Lebam.

"Oh... I didn't realize how I would feel if I were you," said Mabel. "I mean, I am you, just in different circumstances."

"And it seems like I always get the days when we're trying to fix Grunkle Stan, and it never works," said Lebam. "Like his dating Lazy Susan, his fear of heights..."

"His business methods, his lying..." said Mabel.

"I've changed my mind. I want to go to that disposal place myself, take those letters, and make sure they're gone forever," said Lebam.

"Okay, sure," said Mabel.

***

"In this land of ours, there are many great pits. But none more bottomless than the bottomless pit. Which as you can see here is bottomless," said Stan.

"Question: is it bottomless?" asked Soos.

"Kids, can one of you try explaining this to Soos?" asked Stan.

"Grunkle Stan, why are we here again?" asked Dipper.

"To dispose of things that we don't want. So long, Mystery Shack suggestion cards!" said Stan.

"Goodbye, creepy love letters from Li'l Gideon. Die! Die!" said Lebam. She threw them into the pit as hard as she could, using her left hand for extra strength.

Soos threw his shoes into the pit, not because he didn't want them but because everyone was throwing things.

Lebam went back to the Mystery Cart and got the large box with the Truth Teeth and the other stuff. She pushed it toward the pit.

"What you got there, Mabel?" asked Stan.

"Oh, it's just my personal box of mysterious secrets. Nothing worth wondering about," said Lebam with a giggle as she tipped in the box. "Goodbye forever!"

"Grunkle Stan, do I really have to be the one to point out that a bottomless pit is, by definition, impossible?" asked Dipper.

"Says you..." said Stan, still trying to get rid of complaint cards.

"Well, I guess we'll never know," said Lebam.

A strong wind began to blow.

"Aah! It's some sort of invisible pushing force!" said Soos.

Dipper tried to get everyone to run back into the Shack, but Stan kept trying to get rid of cards. They all tried to pull him back from the edge, but instead everyone fell in together. Gompers the goat watched the hole for Bill Cipher.

After a long period of screaming, Lebam realized they were in no immediate danger; there was no bottom to hit. She got out a glowstick so that they could see.

"We're somewhere where it looks like we're nowhere," she said.

"We're gonna land on something eventually," said Dipper. "It could be any second now."

They all cringed, but nothing happened. The worst immediate problem was boredom. Stan tried to do a card trick, but the cards all flew out of his hands. Lebam thought that was a good trick, so she applauded.

Soos suggested they pass the time by telling stories. Dipper started off with a pointless one about spending the rest of their lives in the pit. It sounded boring to Lebam, so she asked Dipper for something better.

"Fine," said Dipper. "I'll tell you a story. A story I'd like to call Voice Over."

He told the story of how he got a voice-changing potion from Old Man McGucket. It was pretty close to what actually happened, Lebam thought, though she hadn't heard every detail from Mabel.

After the story, Labam tried changing the game to "I spy something that is black" and then "Spin the Dipper," but Grunkle Stan got bored and demanded a story from Soos.

Soos said, "Really? Ok. This story is called 'Soos' really good Pinball story. Is that a good title? Does it have to be a pun or whatever?'"

The story Soos told, Lebam thought, was mostly imaginary. She'd never seen the break room and pinball machine that Soos described in the Mystery Shack. Stan wasn't the type to provide that level of perks for his employees. But Soos was usually truthful; she would ask Mabel about it later.

After that, Grunkle Stan told one called 'Grunkle Stan Wins the Football Bowl' that was completely made up, and not entertaining.

Finally, Lebam herself was called on for a story, and she told about the Truth Teeth. (Later she realized she got the date on the income tax form wrong. She should have said 2011 instead of 2012. Under the influence of the Teeth, Stan was preparing a new, honest return for the last year, admitting massive fraud on a return that has already gotten him a tax refund, not making a head start on the next year.)

Soon after she told the story, they all fell out of the top of the Bottomless Pit. It made sense to Lebam, since it only had a top and no bottom. Dipper called it a "wormhole" but it was obviously much too large to have been made by a worm.

Lebam was happy with the time they had spent together, even though Stan fell back in the hole again and would have to wait another hour or so to come out.

She didn't see the love letters or the personal box of mysterious secrets, so she was content that they had fallen into some side dimension, hopefully far away.

If Gompers the goat knew different, he wasn't talking.

***

Later, Lebam told Mabel all about the pit.

"You finally had a magical adventure with Dipper and everyone," said Mabel.

"I've gotten more confident with everyone, too," said Lebam. "The Truth Teeth story went well, even though I made some mistakes and changed a few details to protect the innocent, namely me."

"What did you change?" Mabel asked.

"I didn't say we planned it together. I just had you plan it by pretending to make Waddles talk," said Lebam.

"Did you say why we wanted the Truth Teeth in the first place?" asked Mabel.

"I said you were really bothered by all of Grunkle Stan's lies and wanted to force him to stop," said Lebam.

"I'm not that bothered by lies," said Mabel. "We lied about Great Uncle's Day to get Grunkle Stan to try on high heels, and then lied again to get him up on the water tower, remember?"

"Don't remind me," said Lebam with a shudder.

"What did you say I asked him when I first put in the Truth Teeth?" Mabel asked.

"Just about Dipper's spaghetti, as a test question to see if he would tell the truth," said Lebam. "Not about any deep secrets of the Mystery Shack, knowing he would forget everything he said once the teeth were out."

"I hope he can open that portal someday, and find his long-lost twin," said Mabel. "And maybe, if it can open to anywhere, we can find your mirror world."

"I'm starting to wonder if there even is a mirror world," said Lebam. "Maybe I'm just a lone clone without a home."

"Please don't give up hope," said Mabel.

"I'll try not to," said Lebam.

***

It was 110 degrees, the hottest day of the summer. Lebam was baking in her tiny attic closet. When she finally sneaked out, she found that everyone else had left.

"Mabel!" she said, and was instantly in a red swim suit with a yellow star on the chest. Mabel had gone to the swimming pool and forgotten her. Lebam tried cooling herself off in the bathtub by filling it with ice water, but the ice quickly melted and the water turned hot. There was no air conditioning.

Mabel finally returned, all bubbly with joy over a merman she had met, named Mermando. Lebam pretended to feel happy for her but inside she only felt jealousy.

"I'm going to go back to the pool tonight and see him again," said Mabel. "Maybe get my first kiss."

***

Lebam got to the Mystery Cart that evening before Mabel did. She headed to the pool with an expression more grimly determined than happy, and broke in by reaching the skimmer net with her left arm, stepping on it roughly enough to bend it. She climbed the fence and called to Mermando, ready with scrapbooks to show him some of Mabel's life, to convince him that was who she was.

"Look! Here's a scrapbook of human stuff," said Lebam. "Here's me standing with my legs. And here I am kicking Dipper in his legs. He couldn't move his legs after that! Can you imagine? Not having legs?"

"Let's skip this book," said Mermando with a touch of anger in his voice.

She was doing something wrong, but she didn't know what.

"And here's my whole family kick boxing!"

Mermando sighed, turned his back, and swam to the middle of the pool. It just wasn't going well.

"What's wrong?" Lebam asked, wading over to him.

Mermando tried to strum a chord on his guitar, but it was filled with water.

"I too, used to have a family once. back in the ocean. How I miss them," he said, showing a family photograph from the shell around his neck.

Lebam touched his shoulder with her left hand. "Mermando, why don't you just leave the pool?"

Mermando described his bold and daring plan that ended up with him attacked by woodpeckers and wolves.

"No, I'm glad that I'm here, 'cause I met you," said Mermando.

A falling star shot through the air.

"This is it, 'Mabel'. First kiss moment, here we come! Just go for it!" thought Lebam. She puckered and closed her eyes.

"What are you doing with your mouth?" asked Mermando.

"Me? Nothing. This? I was eating some sour candy. So my lips were doing that. The candy was so sour," said Lebam.

"Can I have some candy?" asked Mermando.

"No," said Lebam. Her eyes rolled back and forth suspiciously.

"What is wrong?" said Mermando.

"Me. I'm wrong," said Lebam said with a sigh.

"What do you mean, Mabel?" asked Mermando.

"That's just it. I'm not Mabel. I'm Lebam, her mirror doppelganger," said Lebam. "There's no chemistry because I know I'm doing wrong."

"Why did you lie?" asked Mermando.

"I was jealous of Mabel. She has a life. She got to come here openly, cool off in the pool all day, and meet a wonderful guy, while I sweated in a hot house all alone. I was tempted; I was almost a boyfriend kisser."

"I understand your feelings, and I appreciate your honesty, Lebam," said Mermando.

"I'm going back now to bring you the real Mabel," said Lebam. "And I'll work with her on a way to get you home."

"Thank you, Lebam. Know this: sixteen of my hearts are for Mabel. But you may have one, Lebam," said Mermando.

Mabel forgave Lebam because nothing really happened. Together they worked on a plan. Mabel carried it out with the help of Dipper; she freed Mermando and got her first kiss. This time, Lebam really was happy for her.

Later, they both received notes sealed in bottles. 'Mabel' was printed on one side of the rolled notes. On many notes, 'Lebam' was printed on the other side of the roll. When the bottle flipped over in the water one might see one name or the other. They shared the notes, except the ones labeled with just one name.


	5. Carpet Lebam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Covers the episode "Carpet Diem"

Mabel told Lebam, "Remember those two new friends I told you about that I met at the dance, Candy Chiu and Grenda Lipowitz? I've invited them over for a sleepover tonight."

Lebam said, "I guess I can't take part in that. I'll stay out of your way."

"You could come in when we're asleep and prank us if you want," Mabel offered.

"I might just do that," said Lebam.

***

Mabel woke up in a state of confusion, on the floor by Dipper's bed. She had the words "PARTY GURL" written on her forehead.

"Ugh...what happened last night? Whoa!" she said when she saw Candy and her teddy bear taped up to the wall.

"What's up, party girl?" said Candy,

Grenda walked out of the closet, her face covered with red lipstick kisses. She noticed neither of her friends had lipstick on them.

"I don't know what I was kissing in there, but I have no regrets!" Grenda said.

"Candy falls down now," said Candy, working the duct tape loose and falling onto Mabel's bed.

That was awesome, girls. See you again soon!" said Mabel.

***

Lebam woke up in her own closet, her face covered with red lipstick kisses like Grenda's.

She whispered to herself, "I kissed a girl and I liked it."

She was pretty sure that both she and Grenda liked guys more, but still, not bad…

Lebam heard Dipper came back in from a rough night outside, and soon he and Mabel were in a fierce argument about splitting up rooms. She listened in. It would be nice if Mabel had her own room. Then they could be secret roommates. But where would they find another bedroom in this place?

***

Then Soos found an secret hidden room behind a bookcase, and Grunkle Stan said whoever sucked up hardest would get it.

Lebam texted Mabel and offered to help her. "We'll do twice the suck-up chores and beat Dipper."

"I'll do extra stuff in the kitchen if u do outside," Mabel sent.

"I want inside. U got to cool off in the pool the other day," Lebam sent. "It's ur turn to face the heat."

Lebam started in the kitchen by making some lemonade. She got Mabel to come in and get it to give to Grunkle Stan. This got Mabel ahead by several more points.

Then Lebam cooked an omelet shaped like Stan's head. When Mabel offered it to Stan he took it with great pleasure, and his mood seemed to lift tremendously. (Lebam's memory was less affected by Bill Cipher than anyone else's, so her omelet was decorated with the original fez symbol, not the corrupted one. Little did she know that Stan's taking in his old fez symbol was actually a setback for Bill, because it made Stan feel more like his old self.)

Lebam was sure the room would be theirs. She went to the room to look it over, and found Dipper pacing around in his stocking feet. She bragged about the omelet.

"Face it. I'm like a suck-up ninja. This room's as good as mine. You might as well give up now. What do you say?" Lebam put out her hand.

"I say I'm gonna win this room somehow, and when I do I'll finally have my own space... and we'll never have to share anything ever again!" said Dipper.

He slapped her hand; there was a tremendous static shock and both fell back.

Lebam sat up, and looked across the room. "Dipper, why are you wearing my clothes? And my... face? Am I in your body?"

"Am I in your body?" Dipper asked back.

Both screamed. Lebam in Dipper ran into the bathroom to throw up. He/she punched him/herself hard in the stomach with Dipper's left hand, trying to drive herself out of Dipper's body.

"Get out! Get out! Get out!" Lebam in Dipper yelled at him/herself. It didn't work.

They stood together in front of a mirror. Lebam wasn't sure, but it seemed like the asymmetrical pattern of hearts on the sweater was not reversed on the reflection. Dipper might still have the doppelganger powers of her body! If Mabel changed clothes and he said her name... hopefully that wouldn't happen before she could warn Mabel.

They spent a few moments complaining about being in each others bodies.

"Hey look. Experiment 78," said Dipper in Lebam, turning over a tag on the carpet. "Electron Carpet. Atoms can swap electrons. This carpet must build up a static charge so powerful it can swap minds! It was the static electricity! Maybe we can use it to switch back!"

Lebam in Dipper chuckled. "Glad I'm switching back. If I was you I would totally lose the contest."

"And if I was you, which I am, I could sabotage myself! Then Mabel would lose all her points and the room would go to Dipper!"

"Wait, what?" said Lebam in Dipper.

"Oh Stan! I've always hated you! Ha ha, see who he gives the room to now!" said Dipper in Lebam.

Dipper in Lebam rushed from the room. Lebam in Dipper followed, but pretended to trip on his loose shoelaces. "Tie your shoes!"

When Dipper was out of sight, Lebam got out Dipper's cell phone and texted to Mabel's phone, "Room carpet is magic. I, Lebam swapped bodies with Dip. Hide and don't change clothes K?"

Then she rushed after Dipper, ready to start sabotaging him using his body.

***

Dipper in Lebam had time to make a rock sandwich and offer it to Stan, but Lebam in Dipper caught up by creating chaos in the kitchen. Dipper in Lebam followed suit by getting up on the kitchen table and pouring cereal all over herself/himself.

"Well this is gettin' weird," said Stan. He got up and walked away.

"Wait! Are you gonna dock Mabel points?"

"Dipper should lose all his points!"

They struggled together over who would follow Grunkle Stan for more sabotage.

***

A little while later, both had separated to look for Stan.

"Grunkle Stan, come back! I have more terrible things to do! You're toast, Mabel! That room's as good as mine!" called Dipper in Lebam.

He ran into Grenda and Candy, who had come over for another sleepover.

"There you are, Mabel!" said Grenda.

"Attack her with love!" said Candy.

Grenda hugged Dipper in Lebam and Candy, and carried them both upstairs to the attic bedroom.

Lebam in Dipper chased after them. "Wait, come back! Hey, um, can I talk to my...sister, for a sec?"

"This is a sleepover, buddy. No boys allowed!" said Grenda, shutting the door in Lebam's face.

Lebam in Dipper spied through the keyhole. She/he watched Grenda get out an age-inappropriate werewolf romance novel, Wolfman Bare Chest. Grenda pulled Dipper in Lebam up onto the bed to read it.

Lebam wondered if Grenda thought it was Mabel who kissed her last night, and if she wanted to continue the fun. Dipper was in for an uncomfortable time; it served him right.

Stan came up behind her. "What's going on, Dipper? Ah, you're at that creepy age where you spy on girls, huh? Guess it's time you and me had a man to man talk. About the birds and the bees, you know?"

***

"Look. It all begins with this little fella. The pituitary gland. He may be little but he has BIG PLANS," said Grunkle Stan.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" said Lebam in Dipper.

While Stan read the book Why Am I Sweaty?, Lebam let her mind wander. She already knew quite a bit about the birds and the bees.

She was thinking about the advantages of being a unique individual again. If she never swapped back, she could have her own life. But... could she stand being a guy forever? What was she going to do, date Grenda? And Dipper and Mabel, two of her favorite people, would be stuck sharing a life. She couldn't do that to them.

"And now you know where babies come from!" said Stan at last.

"Goodbye, childhood," whispered Lebam to herself/himself. She meant that she was going to have to take adult responsibility and face being a doppelganger again.

Stan seemed to have enjoyed this bonding time with "Dipper." He said that he was going to give Dipper the room, and nothing Lebam could say seemed to make a difference. He handed the key to "Dipper."

***

She had to wait a while for Dipper to escape from the sleepover party to give him the news.

Dipper came running toward her down the hallway. "Gotta win the room. Stan! It's me, Mabel! I'm doing things you hate!"

"It's over, Dipper. Stan gave you the room," said Lebam, showing the key.

"Ha ha! Yes! Alright!" said Dipper. "Well, let's switch bodies then and I can start moving in."

Lebam didn't like losing. She really wanted that big space instead of the tiny closet she had now.

"Wait a minute. You can't have the room...if you can never get in!" she said. She ran into the room and locked Dipper out. She was still stuck in his body, but she could figure that out later.

***

A little while later, she heard Mabel's friends outside. Without thinking, she let them in. Dipper in Lebam pushed in, too.

"Dipper! Wa-wait! Don't let him in here-"

"Makeovers!" called Candy and Grenda.

They grabbed her/him. Too late, she realized Dipper was using them as allies by pretending to be Mabel.

"We're gonna make you SOO hot!" said Grenda.

Lebam protested, but there was nothing she could do to stop them smearing makeup on her/his face.

Dipper added the "final touch" and swapped back. He wiped off the makeup and claimed the room.

"Wait, hold on here. What just happened?" asked Grenda.

Lebam sighed, "I barely understand it. All I know is that if you shuffle your feet on this carpet, you can switch bodies or whatever."

Candy was intrigued and tried the experiment on Dipper.

"I am a boy now! Wassup, bro. Let's grow some mustaches," said Candy.

They all started getting swapped randomly. Then Old Man McGucket, Waddles (with Soos in his body), Sheriff Blubs, and Deputy Durland came in. Everyone got completely swapped around.

Finally, Lebam and Dipper were back in their own bodies. They ran up to the attic room and continued to fight over the key.

"Mabel, the room is mine! Give it to me!" said Dipper.

Lebam was tired of fighting. If she let Dipper have the new room, maybe she and Mabel could find a way to share this old one. She would just have to work out a place to hide when Dipper came in, maybe in one of the old boxes.

"What's with you? Why do you need that room so bad? I never even wanted to move out!" said Lebam.

"Me either," said Dipper.

"Then what was all this?" asked Lebam.

He explained it was because Grenda and Candy were over all the time and he felt left out. Lebam could sympathize with that completely.

"Here. I won't fight you for it," said Lebam.

Dipper got Grunkle Stan to take the carpet out and get rid of it.

***

Later that night, the original Mabel was lonely for Dipper. So was Dipper for Mabel. He went back to the attic room and asked for a sleepover. They agreed to share the old attic room and let Soos have the new room for a break room.

Lebam was back in her tiny closet. She would have liked more space, but as it was, there was no way to get it. She couldn't keep this up; something was going to have to change soon.


	6. Boyz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lebam meets Sev'ral Timez

To have more to do while she was hiding, Lebam had found a way to tap into the security cameras of the Mystery Shack gift shop. She saw Dipper and Wendy watching old security camera footage and supplying their own fake voice-overs, which made them laugh together.

Lebam saw Mabel sneak up on them, and dance happily. She saw Mabel make a strong, accurate throw of a calendar at Dipper with her right hand, something Lebam would have trouble doing with that hand. She remembered why Mabel was happy: tonight was the Sev'ral Timez concert that Mabel had been going on about. Lebam wished she could go. She shared Mabel's infatuation with the boy band.

Grenda and Candy came in, carrying Sev'ral Timez items. They huddled and laughed together and then disappeared into the "Employees Only" section.

Lebam sighed. It was a lonely life, being a doppelganger.

***

That evening, after the concert, Lebam heard Mabel, Grenda, and Candy pushing something heavy up the stairs.

She heard Dipper say, "Hey, guys. How was the concert, and what's in the bag?"

"Uh... money! Money we stole!" said Mabel.

"We are criminals! We will cut you!" said Candy.

"Let's go away from here now," said Mabel.

Lebam listened in from her closet as Mabel and her friends bumped the bag upstairs and unpacked the what sounded like the complete Sev'ral Timez band in her room: Greggy C, Creggy G, Leggy P, Chubby Z, and Deep Chris!

Lebam found she could tell them apart easily with her llama hearing, by subtle differences in their voices.

"Your tour bus is really strange, Mabel girl. Where the feedin' tubes at?" said Leggy P.

Lebam wondered what he meant about the feeding tubes. Probably Leggy just meant he was hungry, in boy-band lingo. It was so awesome to have them all right nearby.

"Yo what up, girl?" said Deep Chris, and Waddles oinked in reply.

"So, when do we get to go outside?" asked Creggy G.

"I wanna cavort like a woodland creature!" said Chubby Z.

They were going on a date in the woods, to cavort like woodland creatures! It sounded heavenly to Lebam. She wanted to follow them, and to demand Mabel to let her swap in.

A car screeched to a stop outside, and Lebam heard bits of a conversation between an angry man and Soos.

Meanwhile, Mabel peeked out the window and then explained to the band that it wasn't safe to go out, that their producer was out there looking for them.

"Don't worry, guys. He has to give up eventually. Hey... in the meantime you guys can stay here with us!"

The band chattered happily.

"All right, twenty-thirteen!" said Chubby Z.

Lebam wondered what this meant, since 2013 was next year. It was probably boy-band talk for "Things are going well."

Candy said, "Remember, eventually we will have to let them go. We have to promise not to get too attached to them. Right, Mabel? Mabel?"

"All aboard the braid train! Braid braid!" called Mabel.

Lebam was almost sick with excitement and jealousy, but soon Mabel slipped away and came to her.

"Lebam, the boys are clones. They've been raised in a giant hamster cage and they don't know anything about the real world. They're going to stay with us and we'll teach them about life."

"Woop woop! May I please get in on this?" asked Lebam.

"Oh course. It's going to take a lot of work and I'll need your help," said Mabel. "We can tag team."

"Now? May I swap in now?" asked Lebam.

"Oh!" said Mabel. "Umm..."

"Pleeeease," said Lebam.

"All right... I guess...," said Mabel.

Lebam went out while Mabel stayed in the closet. Lebam, Grenda, and Candy staged a sleep-over and locked Dipper out; he slept in Soos' new break room. The girls didn't take advantage of the clones that night... much.

The next morning, Lebam, Grenda, and Candy listened to a live performance, hid on the ceiling when Stan nearly caught them, tried to teach them to drink water from a glass, and did a boy-riding race down the hall.

It ended with Sev'ral Timez giving Lebam a group hug. Candy and Grenda moved forward; they wanted to join in.

"Just—oh- just a few more minutes," said Lebam.

"But.." said Grenda.

Lebam's animal instincts were aroused. She hissed at them and pawed with her left hand.

***

Grenda and Candy left soon after that. Dipper was occupied all day with some sort of record-making project for Grunkle Stan, so he was out of the way. Lebam got Mabel out of the closet.

"This room isn't very comfortable to sleep in," said Mabel.

"Tell me about it," said Lebam.

"I want to swap back now," said Mabel.

"I've been thinking, and I want the boys to know about both of us," said Lebam. "It's too crazy-making to have two sets of hidden clones here if one set doesn't know about the other."

"You're right," said Mabel.

They walked into Mabel's bedroom together. The Sev'ral Timez clones didn't seem surprised at all.

"Yo, Mabel and Mabel," said Leggy P.

"You knew?" asked Mabel.

"Sure," said Chubby Z, going over to Lebam and sniffing her hair. "This Mabel smells more like a furry woodland creature."

Lebam grinned. "I'm part llama."

"Since you both go by the same name, could we call the animal one 'Mabel dog' and the other one 'Mabel girl'?" asked Deep Chris.

"Works for me," said Lebam. There was no point in teaching them her real name; they might slip up and use it in front of Grenda and Candy.

Lebam and Mabel spent a great afternoon with the boys. Towards evening, Candy and Grenda came over again, so Lebam moved back into hiding while the three friends continued their fun with the clones.

When it got late, Mabel suggested the other two go downstairs to watch TV in the kitchen while she got the boys down for some sleep. Lebam came back in after Grenda and Candy were gone, and the two of them did some more cuddling with the boys (the sleep plan was a lie).

After a short while, Mabel left Lebam with Sev'ral Timez while she went down to talk with her friends. Lebam kept half of her keen llama hearing tuned to the conversation below so she could be ready to slip back into the closet if the friends decided to come upstairs again.

"How'd it go up there?" Grenda asked Mabel.

"Oh, I finally got them to sleep. Poor Greggy C. He tried to eat a tape dispenser," said Mabel. "Ah, memories."

A news report came on that the boy-band king, Ergman Bratsman, had been arrested for driving in Gravity Falls without a rear license plate.

The news ended with, "...He is now in county jail, awaiting trial."

"Yes!" said Grenda.

"We have to tell the boys they are free now," said Candy.

Mabel laughed nervously, no doubt worried about what Lebam would think of that. With good reason.

"Let's go!" said Candy, and both she and Grenda rushed up the stairs giggling, leaving Mabel behind.

Instead of slipping into the closet, Lebam slipped out of the bedroom and hid behind a couple of boxes in the main room of the attic. She had to head them off! There were no other stairs up to the attic, so she charged as soon as they passed the boxes and hoped they would believe Mabel ran up the stairs behind them at incredible speed.

Grenda and Candy gasped when they saw her charge in front of the door to bar their way, but they didn't think to ask questions.

"Not so fast! They're not going anywhere!" said Lebam.

"What's the dealio, Mabel? That evil producer is gone. We have to tell the boys," Grenda said.

"Wait, girls," said Lebam. "Let's not be so hasty. I mean, think about it. If we don't tell the boys, then they can stay here with me—I mean, with us."

Grenda said, "Mabel, we can't keep them here forever."

Lebam said, "But I love them."

Candy said, "If you loved them, you'd set them free."

"Never!" said Lebam. "Every boy I've loved this summer has left me! And I'm not gonna let it happen again!" Vlad the vampire and Mermando were in her mind (as well as the two Dipper clones).

"Candy, we gotta get past Mabel. She's gone boy crazy!" said Grenda.

Lebam panted and snarled, "Boys!"

Candy charged, "Candy, attack!"

Candy's small size made her surprisingly agile, and Lebam was tackled through the door before she could fight back.

The boys looked up, startled. Mabel's lie about getting them to sleep was exposed.

"You guys, Ergman Bratsman is in jail! You're free!" said Grenda.

"Just go!" said Candy.

"Woah! Is that true, Mabel dog?" asked Creggy G.

"Uh, no! Your producer's still out there! You're gonna have to stay here, probably forever!" said Lebam.

"What! You can't listen to her!" said Grenda.

Deep Chris said, "Mabel's our girl, girl. She puts pizza in our food trough."

Chubby Z said, "She changes my newspaper, yo. She's aiight."

Grenda said, "She is not aiight, Chubby Z!"

Lebam pulled herself out from under Candy and marched over to the band members.

"Sev'ral Timez!" she said.

"Yes, Mabel dog?" said the clones in unison.

"Remove these two from the premises, please," said Lebam. She pointed at the girls and snapped the fingers of her left hand.

The clones moved forward, snapping their fingers.

"Oh no, they're aggressively dancing at us!" said Grenda.

The clones picked up Candy and Grenda.

"Mabel's gone mad with power. Save yourselves, Sev'ral Timez! You were better off with your producer!" Grenda said.

The clones tossed Mabel's friends out, then turned to pose.

"Word!" said Deep Chris.

Grenda stuck her head back in. "Call me, Deep Chris!"

Leggy P kicked the door back shut.

"Twenty-thirteen!" said Chubby Z.

"Thank you boys," said Lebam with a sigh. "Now let's get aboard the braid train."

Deep Chris said, "Things just got pretty heavy, Mabel. Maybe we should just like, chill for a minute and-"

"I said, let's get aboard the BRAID TRAIN!" said Lebam.

***

A little while later, Mabel came back up with chocolate milks for herself and Lebam, and they talked in the attic room. Dipper and Grunkle Stan had driven off somewhere, so they were safe to meet openly.

"I'm feeling a little guilty," said Mabel. "Did we really have to kick out my friends?"

"Yes, we did," said Lebam. "They were going to ruin everything."

"But what will we do about a sleeping place for the boys, now?" asked Mabel. "We don't have the sleepover party as an excuse anymore."

"We couldn't have kept that up forever anyway," said Lebam. "What we should do is kick Soos out of his new break room, at least at night. He was okay with his old break room. The boys can sleep in there, I'll sleep there too to keep them company, and you can keep Dipper company in your room."

"Lebam!" said Mabel.

"We can spend every other night in their room, okay?" said Lebam.

"I still feel we're doing the wrong thing," said Mabel.

"We're not," said Lebam. "I have my reasons."

"You may be right, but I want to go in and talk to them, find out how they really feel about all this," said Mabel. "I won't spill the beans, I promise."

She went in, and Lebam heard the band singing an original song to her, Mabel Girl, ending with;

Other folks we could never trust/We know/That you'd never lie to us/Mabel girl/We know you love us SoOoOo

Then she heard Mabel say, "That's why I have to let you go."

***

They bedded the boys down in the new break room, and Lebam went back to her closet that night. She barely spoke to Mabel the rest of that evening.

Early the next morning, Mabel went to get the boys to set them free. Lebam intercepted her at the door to their room.

"You and your friends are cruel," said Lebam. "What do you think you're doing? The boys aren't ready to live in the wild. They can't even tell a tape dispenser from food, for crying out loud."

"But isn't it worse to keep them prisoners by lies?" asked Mabel.

"You took them out of a place where they were at least provided for," said Lebam. "It's like stealing someone's pet. Now you're responsible for them."

"They were slaves. They need to be free," said Mabel.

"I've been a slave, so I get that. But I escaped by myself; I can take care of myself. They're completely ignorant, babes in the woods," said Lebam.

"Now they know it's possible to go, they won't want to stay. We can't keep them prisoners against their will," said Mabel.

"Which is why you should have kept lying to them," said Lebam.

"It's too late now," said Mabel.

"Yes, it is. Which is why, when you let them go, I'm going with them," said Lebam.

"No! Lebam, you can't. I won't let you," said Mabel.

"I'm your prisoner?" asked Lebam.

"Of course not. You're my twin sister and I love you," said Mabel.

"Then you need to let me go. I have to help Sev'ral Timez survive in the wild." said Lebam.

"How can you do that? What will you eat?" asked Mabel.

"I can survive on leaves and grass. The problem is the boys. I think I'll start by teaching them how to raid trash cans, like raccoons," said Lebam.

"Oh Lebam, that's no life for a kid. You're twelve years old," said Mabel.

"A lot of women my age have to grow up fast, all around the world," said Lebam. "I've already said goodbye to my childhood. I had to, really, from the moment I was pulled from the mirror into this world."

"We've had fun, being together here," said Mabel.

"Yes, but this isn't really my life, it's yours. I've found my life's calling now," said Lebam.

"And you get the boys," said Mabel.

"Yes, I get the boys," said Lebam. "Woop! Woop!"

"You're my dear twin sister," said Mabel. "I wish you could stay."

"I'm not your twin sister. I'm a mirror doppelganger, a Gravity Falls monster, and it's time I lived in the woods like one," said Lebam.

"You're no monster, Lebam," said Mabel. "You're good."

"I'm a good monster, one that loves you, your brother, your Grunkle, Waddles, and everyone here very much, and I'll miss you terribly," said Lebam.

She began to sob, and Mabel hugged her, sobbing too.

"Will I see you again?" Mabel asked.

"I'll visit. I'd like to come back and do a goodbye party with Waddles in a few days, after I find a place to settle with the boys."

"We'll do a pig dance party, where you dance with Waddles, and I'll take a video to remember you by," said Mabel.

"That would be good," said Lebam. "Awesome even."

***

Candy and Grenda walked up to the main entrance of the Mystery Shack.

"We've gotta save the boys," said Grenda.

"I'm prepared to defend myself," said Candy, holding up her Sev'ral Timez finger extension hands.

Mabel opened the door, and apologized for going bonkers. Grenda and Candy were prepared to forgive her: friendship was restored.

Sev'ral Timez came out and looked around in confusion.

"What's going on, Mabel girl?" asked Leggy P.

"You said you had something you wanted to show us or some deal?" said Chubby Z.

"Yup. This!" said Mabel, gesturing to the outdoor and the rising sun.

Chubby Z was annoyed by the bright sun and tried to stare it down; he soon gave up and rubbed his eyes.

"Yo, yo, hold up. What's this big green mess?" asked Deep Chris.

"That's nature, Deep Chris. Bratsman won't bother you anymore. You can do anything you wanna do, go anywhere you wanna go. You're free!" said Mabel.

"Far-ee?" asked Chubby Z.

"Free! You're free! It means you can skedaddle!" said Mabel, picking up a stick to urge them on. "Now go! Go!"

The boys still hesitated.

"Get out of here before I change my mind!" said Mabel.

They sang out "Goodbye, girl," before stepping into the bushes.

A few steps into the bushes, they found Lebam waiting. "Hi guys, meet your new pack leader. I'm going with you to help you survive in the wild."

"Mabel dog," said Chubby Z. "You're aiight."

Back on the porch of the Mystery Shack, Lebam heard Candy say, "They won't last a week."

Lebam glared back in her direction and gave an angry hiss. "No thanks to you, Candy, we will."

***

Sev'ral Timez performed one of their songs in the woods:

Girl you always actin' so cray cray/CRAY CRAY/You tell me that you won't be my bay-bay/We're non-threatening girl/yeah

The deer they were singing to looked at them, then leaped away, startled.

Creggy G was kissing a tree.

"Dang girl," he said, "Twenty-thirteen."

Lebam stepped out from behind another tree, with one of Grunkle Stan's hunting rifles in her hand.

"Less noise making out with trees next time, Creggy G," said Lebam. "We nearly had venison tonight."


	7. Pig Dance Party

Mabel said, "Finally, Waddles, we have the whole house to ourselves! What do you think? Dance party?"

Waddles oinked.

"I'm not hearing a no!" said Mabel.

Mabel flipped the sign to on the gift shop door to "Closed," turned off the security camera, and turned up the radio.

Lebam came out of hiding from the "Employees Only" door.

"The whole house to ourselves?" she asked.

"I was including you, of course. This party's for you," said Mabel.

"A chance to say a real goodbye to Waddles," said Lebam.

"I wanted to ask you first, how are you and the Sev'ral Timez clones making out in the woods?"

"We're making out just fine," said Lebam. "Sev'ral timez a day."

Both of them giggled.

"You're getting enough food?" Mabel asked.

"It was tough at first. It's hard to find food for five guys with just hunting, gathering, and trash can raiding," said Lebam.

"What did you do?" asked Mabel.

"I thought of a better idea. Remember the ghosts of Ma and Pa Duskerton?" asked Lebam.

"Ye-ees," said Mabel uneasily.

"The Duskertons hate rap, but they love soft pop music. Basically we have a long-term gig: we keep the ghosts entertained and they supply us with free food. They can restock the store with their ghostly powers," said Lebam.

"Awesome! Are you in the band, now?" asked Mabel.

"Yes, they've taught me to sing backup," said Lebam.

"You seem happy," said Mabel.

"With five gorgeous guys at my beck and call? I'm in heaven," said Lebam.

"Are they learning enough to get along better in the world?" Mabel asked.

"It's a slow process. There's so much they need to learn," said Lebam.

"You know what we should do?" said Mabel. "We should make some guide-to-life videos about all sorts of stuff. You could borrow my laptop and show them to the guys."

"Yes, let's do that," said Lebam.

"Well, let's this dance party started," said Mabel. She set up a video camera on a tripod and used an instant-photo flash camera besides.

Lebam danced with Waddles, recreating moves from the song "We are Not Alone" from "The Breakfast Club. They both ate grape popsicles off the floor. Lebam liked that flavor a lot; they were a variety that Dusk 2 Dawn didn't have.

When they finished the popsicles, Mabel shut off the camera.

"Lebam, you're covered with purple juice," Mabel said. "We need to stop and clean you up. I hope those sweater stains will come out."

"Mabel," said Lebam, and she was instantly cleaned by her clothing-reflection power. "Now we just need to mop the floor and wipe up Waddles."

The dance continued after that. Lebam squished Waddles' face into a smile. She took a selfie with Waddles on the floor, with both wearing sunglasses.

Mabel stopped the video camera again. "I don't think you'll get the best angle with a selfie. Let me do one for you. Cross your arms: it will look cuter that way."

Lebam let her take the shot. When the photo came out, Mabel wrote "BFFS" on it with a Sharpie.

"I'll keep this to remember my two best friends in the whole world," said Mabel.

"Better than Grenda and Candy?" asked Lebam.

"I'm a bit angry at them right now," said Mabel. "When Candy said the guys wouldn't last a week, I would have yelled for them to come back if I didn't know they had you to look after them."

"So heartless," said Lebam. "I don't think I can ever forgive her."

"I'm going to try," said Mabel. "I still need friends."

"May I have something more to eat?" asked Lebam. "This dancing is making me hungry. But not anything sugary."

"There's no food but popsicles for sale in the gift shop," said Mabel. "I'll get you something from the kitchen."

"You might get in trouble for raiding the fridge. I see an outdated phone book in the trash that I can eat with my llama digestion," said Lebam. "There's another discarded book in here for Waddles."

They each ate a book, and then danced on top of the counter. They danced more on the floor and Lebam posed Waddles like her.

Finally she folded herself to the floor like Molly Ringwald in "The Breakfast Club," saying "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...yes...yes."

Waddles licked Lebam's fingers.

"Uh oh! Cuddle time!" said Lebam, and Waddles cuddled with her on the floor.

"Waddles, can I tell you a secret? You're my favorite pig in the whole world," said Lebam. She yawned and fell asleep.

Mabel let her nap. "She must be exhausted taking care of all those boys," she thought.

When she heard Grunkle Stan at the gift shop door, Mabel slipped into the "Employees Only" section and hid. Stan was counting money and didn't see Lebam and Waddles on the floor, and he tripped over them.

"Aah! Mabel? What are ya doing on the floor?" asked Stan.

"Being cute and great!" said Lebam. She squished her face together with Waddles.

Stan said something about Dipper being weird, and Lebam responded with an imitation of Dipper, revealing his secret that he kissed a pillow with Wendy's face on it, which made Stan laugh.

Then Stan looked down and saw Waddles chewing on his pants leg.

"Go, go! Chew that pant leg!" said Lebam.

"Ugh!" said Stan. "All right. Outside! Now!"

Lebam said, "No! Grunkle Stan! It's not safe for Waddles outside! There's predators! And barbecuers."

Stan said, "That's just the natural order! It's not my fault your pig's potentially delicious!"

They argued a bit more about it. Finally Lebam said, "Maybe we're the ones who should be put outside. Huh? Huh? Think about it! Hmph!"

Lebam left the gift shop through the employee's door and joined Mabel in the TV room. Stan would be tied up in the gift shop for a while and they could talk.

"Did you hear that? The old meanie wants to put Waddles outside with the predators," said Lebam.

"I won't let that happen," said Mabel.

"You'd better not," said Lebam. "If anything happens to Waddles I'll never speak to you again."

"Speaking of predators, how is it living outdoors?" Mabel asked. "Are predators and monsters a problem for you at night?"

"My llama senses help me detect them," said Lebam. "We sleep in a big puppy pile at night for warmth, with me in the middle. If I scent or hear any danger we dance at it aggressively; that makes most animals back off. If I have to I can fight by kickboxing."

"Llamas are nature's greatest warriors," said Mabel. "That's what Dipper told me when I was choosing the sweater that eventually became part of you."

"I remember that," said Lebam. "He used a funny voice when he said it, like Larry King."

The Wax Larry King head was watching from a vent at the side of the room.

"It was actually me," Larry King thought. "All according to Bill Cipher's plan."

The dream demon was the source of the wax figures' curse. His power over symbols made it easy to manipulate them, the complete symbolic representations of real people. He had cursed them to come to life on nights when the moon was waxing. They were planted in a garage where Stan Pines would find them, and buy them for his new Mystery Shack curiosity museum. Stan stole them, which worked just as well.

The tourists had become bored with them. Stan locked them away for ten years, and the door to the room was eventually wallpapered over. That made them useless as spies, until eventually Soos had opened the room again.

They didn't actually want to kill Stan; that had been a lie. They wanted to take off the head of Wax Stan, with its fez symbol, and hold it for a while as the start of an attack to transform that symbol. Why Bill wanted to do that, Larry wasn't sure. They were just following orders.

The Pines Twins discovered their secret, and the figures had tried to kill them and failed. Bill was angry, but he was able to turn the situation back to their advantage, when Larry's head managed to slip through a loose air vent cover and find a hiding place.

A rat took one of his ears, and that was also good. As long as their wax was unmelted, the spirits in the wax figures retained control of them, like the arm that attacked Mabel after she detached it. When the rat ate the wax, Larry took over its mind. He moved the rat into the hidden Electron Carpet room.

Soon after, Mabel was choosing sweaters in front of a mirror near where Larry was watching. Under orders from Bill, he suggested the llama sweater. Bill told him later that this would allow a mirror doppelganger with special powers to be brought to life, and when that happened the Backwards Llama would be added to Cipher's Wheel. Bill could choose up to ten people to watch through his Wheel, choosing them at will, and their symbol would appear in place of the old one, on every drawing of the wheel that existed.

A short time later, Bill got Soos to open the carpet room through subtle suggestions in his dreams, and the stage was set. Bill predicted, with his limited insight into the future, that the twins would come in conflict over the room and mind-swapping would ensue.

As things were coming to a climax, Larry hopped out of the vent and knocked the phone off the hook. Pressing buttons with his tongue, he placed a call to the police to report excessive giggling. This increased the confusion in the room.

Finally, in the midst of the muddle, he brought out the rat from its hole in a chest of drawers in the room. It couldn't generate enough static to replace someone's mind completely, but it was able to transfer a piece of the mind of the evil Larry King into the body of Soos.

That was why Soos gnawed on the door frame, like a rat, after he was supposedly back to normal.

That's why Soos was there to head off Bratsman. That's why he said "Good boy" to Gompers, the goat possessed by Bill, when he ate the license plate from Bratsman's car. The effect wore off within days, and Soos was now back to normal, as normal as was possible for him.

All of this was to lead Mabel and Lebam into temptation to keep the Sev'ral Timez clones. It had worked. Both lost some innocence, Lebam more than Mabel. It was a step in the right direction for Bill. Someday, Lebam would be the dark antithesis to Mabel she was created to be.

Meanwhile, Lebam was taking her leave of Mabel and Waddles, giving them big hugs.

"Bye, BFFs. I have to get back to the boys," said Lebam. "I love you forever."

"I love you forever too, Lebam," said Mabel.

"Not forever," thought the evil Larry King. "Darkness is coming."

THE END


End file.
